Cardozo forward Dwayne Brunson is dealing with off-the-court adversity while helping the Judges get off to a 5-0 start in Queens AA.Kendall Rodriguez

Brunson’s ability to play above the rim has drawn the interest of college coaches. (christina santucci)

He bounces around the Cardozo hallways like a politician, shaking hands with everyone – teachers, students, administrators, school safety offers. His smile, big and loopy, never leaves as he greets passers by.

There is more to the toothy grin, though, for Dwayne Brunson, the Judges’ dynamic 6-foot-7 gazelle of a forward.

Behind it lies an ongoing academic struggle to remain eligible, the burden of a trying childhood and a difficult family life. His mother, Tanya Brunson, who he recently grew close with after years without contact, was diagnosed with cancer, this after winning her first battle with the disease.

“He has more problems than a math book,” Cardozo coach Ron Naclerio said, a joke mixed with plenty of truth. “With Dwayne, he’s always one second from losing it.”

Brunson, a senior, was born in South Carolina, raised by his grandmother, Mattie Richards. At the time of his birth, Tanya Brunson was just 15, and his father, also named Dwayne Brunson, was 18. When his father and grandmother moved to New York, he remained down south with his sister, Cassandra, living with his mother. At the age of 9 he came to the Big Apple and never left, splitting time with his father and grandmother.

He bounced around, from Walton HS in the Bronx to Wingate HS in East New York, battling academic woes that stemmed from being the oldest of six children in his father’s home. He was asked to take care of his siblings, a lot of responsibility.

“He had to babysit and do other things a grownup should be doing,” Richards said.

His life began to find stability when he moved in with his grandmother and aunt in Queens Village. He found his way to Cardozo and Naclerio in the spring of his sophomore year. Brunson was suspended twice last year by Naclerio for disciplinary reasons, but helped the Judges to the Queens AA crown, forming an immediate bond with fellow senior forward Ryan Rhoomes.

At this season’s outset, he was dangerously close to not making the grade. He reached an agreement with an assistant principal at the school, Naclerio said. Brunson couldn’t miss any classes – a habit in the past – needed to hand in every piece of work on time and had to stay out of trouble.

That was three weeks ago. He had gotten into a groove, before news of his mother’s latest health scare hit. He found out the day before the Judges’ showdown with national powerhouse Christ the King last Saturday. Prior to tip-off, Brunson wasn’t talking – not to Rhoomes, his good friend, not to Naclerio, the coach who has taken him under his wing, not to anybody.

“I try to talk to him, but he brushes you off, like, ‘I’m all right, I’m OK,’” Rhoomes says. “He holds it in.”

It was a scene that has repeated itself before. Brunson just “shuts down,” his words. He wants to be by himself. It doesn’t matter if he has a paper due or a game upcoming. He has trouble dealing with adversity. Not that anybody could blame him.

“It seems like he’s been born with two strikes against him and he’s facing CC Sabathia with a toothpick in his hands,” Naclerio says. “Now with his mother [battling cancer again] it’s like he’s facing CC Sabathia with nothing in his hands. He’s the type of kid that could be walking down the street, minding his own business and trouble finds him.”

Brunson hasn’t let his mother’s illness effect him in the classroom, not yet at least. Last December, the two reconnected during a visit back home to South Carolina. Since, the two frequently talk, text-messaging one another habitually.

The morning after the loss to Christ the King, he sent Naclerio a text message that read: “You can fall down the hill, but you gotta climb right back up.” If anything, Brunson said this latest unfortunate occurence has energized him, serving as a motivational factor, to become the first person from his mother’s side of his family to attend college. Richards, Brunson’s grandmother, said he has become more disciplined, that she finds him sitting at home doing his work more consistently.

“I’m praying it’s not too late, because this is his last chance,” she says.

Brunson credits his turnaround to the people around him – Naclerio, Rhoomes, his teammates, teachers and classmates, his grandmother. He calls Cardozo his “extended family.” Richards said it was there where he got his true start, in basketball and academics.

He is well-liked at Cardozo. There was one instance when Brunson found a wallet in the school’s hallways and returned it with all its money and Identification cards intact. Another time, he stepped in to help an underclassman who was getting picked on in the school’s cafeteria. He recently participated in the school dance with teammates Reynaldo (Junior) Walters and Shelton Mickell, wowing the crowd with his athleticism. Assistant coach Bruno Comatuccio, who has become a mentor for Brunson, said the forward treats his two kids like his own little brothers.

“He’s an outstanding young man outside of being an excellent player,” said Comatuccio, who coached Brunson over the summer in the Long Island Lightning AAU program.

Brunson averaged 14 points and 12 rebounds per game last year and has tallied 16 points and 12 rebounds per game this season in leading Cardozo to a 5-0 start in Queens AA. His game is played above the rim, his thunderous dunks a trademark to the Judges’ attack. Brunson improved his perimeter games, too, over the summer, so much so that Naclerio considers him one of his best 3-point shooters.

He is a natural small forward at the next level, an impressive leaper, improving jump-shooter and defender with length. Naclerio says his former player who can jump with Brunson is Ryan Williams, a former standout at St. John’s University. When Lincoln coach Dwayne (Tiny) Morton saw him, Naclerio says, he was floored by his aerial ability.

Quinnipiac, Hartford, Duquesne, Rhode Island and Seton Hall all like Brunson, who will likely have to spend time at a junior college or prep school after his senior year at Cardozo.

“He can be a high-major player,” one Division I assistant coach says.

Another assistant says if not for his academic woes and troubled family life Brunson would be looking at a scholarship from a major conference.

“He has a great feel for the game, he’s big, he can catch, he can run – that’s the part of the game you teach most big guys when they come to college. He has those skills already,” the coach says. “He’s definitely, definitely, definitely a big-time recruit and definitely would have big-time schools all over him if it wasn’t for his academics.”

Making the grade at the Bayside school has never been easy for Brunson. At Wingate, showing up for class was all that it took to pass. Cardozo is one of the better public schools in the city, filled with demanding teachers administering tests, essays and projects.

“He came here down 20 points [academically],” Naclerio said.

Rhoomes has often joked his only problem with Cardozo is the teachers – because they expect so much. It was another world for Brunson. He never had anyone who sat home with him, helping with his homework.

Naclerio has often said he still coaches at Cardozo after all these years for two reasons: to win and help troubled souls like Brunson. The other day, as Brunson was preparing to leave practice early, to finish a project due the next day, Naclerio said he expected Brunson to break his heart one day.

Brunson smiled, that smile he likes to flash, the kind everyone at Cardozo has grown so fond of. He then turnn serious.

“At this point, shutting down isn’t going to solve anything,” he says. “One day it hit me – you can’t get over. If you want something in life, you got to work for it.”

“Everything happens for a reason,” he adds. “Either I shutdown or overcome it.”